President Obama's bipartisan health care summit begins later this morning, but the bickering started weeks ago. Arguments between Republicans and Democrats over what kind of table will be used, the seating arrangements, the frequency of coffee breaks and other minutiae are starting to take center stage even before the conversation about whether or how to reform health care.

“
He wants to let the American people know what is in this bill, because even though the bill itself is unpopular, when you break it down and tell people what's in it, remarkably they like all the elements. I think this is a chance to sit in front of the American people and say, look, this is what you said you wanted. I know it's been a messy process, I know you're turned off by the deal making and all that, but if we can pass this bill we can actually do something to help you, and you won't have to worry about health care so much anymore.

Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, talks about the importance of pageantry in events like this, and whether President Obama can hope to repeat the success he had at a House Republican conference last month in Baltimore. We also have Jonathan Cohn, senior editor for The New Republic, to talk about what he's expecting from this summit, and what President Obama and the Republicans need to do to actually get things done.

The summi is probably a smoke screen: when the Democratic Party tries to use budget reconciliation to pass the bill in the Senate, and other devices in the House, they will say that they tried bi-partisanship, but it didn't work. Bipartisanship here means: here is the bill, will you accept it? The bill still funds abortions.